F 1234 
.D92 
Copy 1 



The Republic of Mexico. 



SPEECH 



w-^ 



HON. MARK H. PUNNELL, 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, APRIL 13, 1872. 



The House having mot for debate as in Committee 
of the Whole on the state of the Union — 

Mr. BUNNELL said: 

Mr. Speaker : On the 11th of last month 
the honorable gentleman from New York 
[Mr. Brooks] moved that the rules be sus- 
pended fou the purpose of passing the fol- 
lowing resolution : 

Whereas Mexico, a neighboring and conterminous 
territory, is and has been in a state of revolution 
now for half a century ; and whereas on our borders 
there are constant raids and inroads more or less 
destructive to life and to the property of the people 
of these United States, thus demanding from our 
Government decided action ; and whereas philan- 
thropy, humanity, and Christianity thus shocked 
revolt from thiscontinuousshedding of human blood 
in endless civil wars which are depopulating the 
country and reducing the people thereof to bar- 
barism : Therefore, 

Be it restlved, (the Senate concurring therein,) 
That the President of the Senate and the Speaker 
of the House of Representatives appoint a joint 
committee, three from each body, to devise the 
wisest and best policy to be pursued in reference to 
Mexico and for the establishment of law and order 
on our borders. 

I do not give the foregoing resolution with 
the intention of making an extended criticism 
thereon, though the words used in the pre- 
amble are certainly indicative of no very great 
respect on the part of the gentleman, for the 
Government or people of Mexico. The words, 
"a neighboring and conterminous territory," 
are remarkable when they refer to a Govern- 
ment at which we have a full minister, and 
whose minister is accredited to our own. They 
are remarkable when used in reference to a 
republic. The preamble and resolution do 
not meet my approval, and I make them the 
occasion of a few remarks. They are made in 
defense of a country for which I have a pro- 
found sympathy, and for which I believe there 
is a brighter future. 

There are, sir, some grounds for this sym- 



pathy which I feel for the republic of MeK- 
ico, and which impel me to defend her here 
at the present time. During the attempt of 
France, England, and Spain to overthrow 
the Government of Mexico while our civil 
war was in progress, it was my fortune to 
be in Mexico for a year, and I then learned 
somewhat of that republic, of the nature of 
the struggle that was then going on there and 
is now going on, as well as the sympathy of 
that people toward our own Government. 
The natives of that country never failed to re- 
joice over the success of the Union arms here. 
While struggling for their own national exisc- 
enee, they were constantly asking for news 
from this. This fact has made me willing 
at this time to present, feebly though it may 
be, a defense of Mexico, and to give some rea- 
sons why I think our Government should ex- 
tend to this sister republic a warm, and gen- 
erous sympathy. 

I need not, of course, go back into the his- 
tory of Mexico ; I need not refer to the Aztec 
nation, nor to the conquest of that nation by 
the Spaniards under Cortez; nor need I fol- 
low the career of Mexico from 1821 down to 
1859, when the present administration came 
into power. 

The Government of Mexico is very nearly 
like our own, though in some respects quite 
different. She elects her president for four 
years. She has but a single branch in her 
national Congress — a house of representatives 
consisting of two hundred and twenty-four 
members — although at the present time the 
proposition is before the State legislatures to 
change th« constitution and provide for a sen- 
ate. She has a federal supreme court and 
federal circuit courts, as well as State courts, 
the State judges holding their offices for life, 
and the federal judges for six years. The 
chief justice of the supreme court is the vice 



o ,. 



2 



president of the republic, and in case of a 
vacancy in the presidency he becomes the 
president. Benito Juarez, who is the present 
executive, thus became the president, he 
being chief justice of the supreme court of the 
country when the vacancy in the office of 
president occurred, and has since then been 
twice elected by the people. 

The annual expenses of the Government are 
about $17,000,000. The receipts for its sup- 
port have generally been equal to its ex- 
penses. They are derived from a direct tax, 
stamp duties, and from imposts upon exports. 
The republic is divided into twenty-three 
States, one territory, and one district. Its 
entire length, northwest and southeast, is up- 
ward of two thousand miles, and its extreme 
breadth over eleven hundred miles. The popu- 
lation in 1869 was 9,160,000 

The following are the leading cities with 
their population : 

City of Mexico 250,000 

Leon 120,000 

Guadalajara 100,000 

Puebla 80,000 

San Luis Potosi 50,000 

Guanajuato 70,000 

Zacatecas 50,000 

Her territory comprises an area of 766,842 
square miles. Its coast line is 5,800 miles. 

I will allude, in a very few words, to the 
wonderful wealth of Mexico — wealth lavishly 
bestowed upon her by nature ; and then to 
some of the moral forces which are at work, 
and which inspire in my mind hope for the 
brighter future which I insist is in store for 
that republic. 

Mexico unites the vegetation of North and 
South America. By reason of its peculiar 
geological structure, and its variations of 
climate and temperature, according to eleva- 
tion, it presents an immense variety of indi- 
genous productions, and scarcely a plant exist 
on the globe which cannot be grown in some 
part of the country. Whole provinces on the 
table-land produce alpine plants, oaks, chest- 
nuts, and pine, spontaneously. Rice, Indian 
corn, the banana, the sugar-cane, tobacco, 
coffee, jalap, cacao, beans, chile, wheat, bar- 
ley, potatoes, peas, lentils, American aloe, 
nopal, cotton, pepper, anise vanilla, sarsa- 
parilla, indigo, cochineal, wax, silk, and 
indeed every production of all the zones are 
found in Mexico. They are not only found 
there, but grow with strange luxuriousness. 
The flora of the country has drawn thither the 
naturalists of every clime. 

These are the agricultural or vegetable 
products. If we turn to the mineral pro- 
ductions we should be as well satisfied with the 
showing ; it has silver, gold, copper, iron, 
zinc, lead, antimony, arsenic, sulphur, cobalt, 
&c.; and of the precious stones, the ruby, 
amethyst, topaz, opal, garnet, agate and 
chalcedony. The people of the United States, 



as it has seemed to me, underrate Mexico . 
They may rest assured that it is a laud of un- 
surpassed wealth. 

The number of landed estates is estimated 
at fifteen thousand, the value of which is put 
down at $800,000,000 ; and town property is 
estimated at $700,000,000. This gives a total 
of $1,500,000,000. The annual value of agri- 
cultural products throughout the country, may 
be safely estimated at $300,000,000. The cul- 
tivation of sugar-cane is quite considerable. 
In six States forty million pounds are manu- 
factured annually; and the annual production 
of cotton is over thirty thousand bales, of four 
hundred pounds each. 

The product of wheat is also quite large, 
especially in the State of Puebla, growing at 
the lowest average, sixty bushels to the one ; 
and barley is equally productive. 

When we look at these productions we, of 
course, must remember that they are im- 
mensely lessened by the disordered condi- 
tion of the country. Before closing, I desire 
to mention some of the causes which have 
been in operation, and which are still in oper- 
ation, and some of which are from without, 
producing these disorders which we, as a 
neighboring republic, ought not to look upon 
as a cause why we should neglect or fail to 
-give it the warm support of which I have 
spoken. 

If peace and good government could be 
vouchsafed to this land, the world would be 
amazed at the natural wealth which it pos- 
sesses. Manufactures, of course, have grown 
in that country slowly, and have lived under 
many difficulties ; yet the manufacture of cot- 
ton cloth and thread is very considerable. The 
number of factories in 1863 was forty-seven, 
with 122,354 spindles, giving employment to 
ten thousand laborers. The total cost of the 
buildings and machinery was $7,342,957._ The 
annual expense of running these factories ia 
$1,261,000. There are eight paper manufac- 
tories in that country. The total value of 
manufactures of all kinds may be safely put 
down at $100,000,000. Exports have amounted 
on the average during the last year to 
$28,000,000, and the imports to $26,000,000. 

The imports consist chiefly of cotton, linen, 
woolen, and silk fabrics, as well as cotton and 
silk in their raw state ; brandies, wines, liquors, 
oil, earthenware, glass, quicksilver, iron, guns, 
steel, tin, hardware, watches, jewelry, paper, 
machinery, wax, cocoa, carriages, furniture, 
musical instruments, books, and other articles 
of minor importance. Of the $28,000,000 
of exports, about $22,000,000 are of gold 
and silver, in coin and bars. The remainder 
is made up of cochineal, vanilla, tobacco, 
coffee, jalap, sarsaparilla, American aloe, 
flax, copper, hides, tallow, timber, cattle, 
logwood, indigo, cocoa, pepper, salt, tortoise 
shell, pearls, mother-of-pearl, meat and fish 



^' salted, rice, beans, nuts, woolen fabrics, bis- 
'■> cuits, fruit, sugar, &c. 

The exports from Mexico into the United 
, States in 1868 were $5,061,344, and the ex- 
ports from the United States to Mexico were 
:$6,111,722.- »_ 

It might here be interesting to dwell upon 
the commerce of Mexico, show its steady 
increase, and a quite rapid increase with this 
country. Mexico could furnish us with coffee 
equal to the best sufficient for our entire 
consumption. 

The mines of Mexico we know more about, 
and of the large income from them. They are 
the inexhausFible source from which silver 
and gold come. Their production is marvel- 
ous. The yearly coinage of mines in Mexico 
has increased in steady progression from the 
time of the establishment of the first mint to 
the year 1805, when the highest amount was 
reached, being for that year, $27,000,000. 
The total coinage of the mints of Mexico from 
the war of independence to 1856 was $476,- 
892.014. Humboldt in 1803 stated that the 
tofal amount of silver raised from the Mexican 
mines from the conquest in 1512 to 1803 was 
$2,027,952,000. A writer in Hunt's Mer- 
chants' Magazine (New York, August, 1858,) 
estimated the total product of the Mexican 
mines, from the conquest of Cortez to the 
present time, at nearly $12,000,000,000. The 
amount of gold is one fifth of the amount of 
silver. 

I have now alluded to the extent of this 
country, slightly to its governmental affairs, 
and thus slightly to its agricultural and mineral 
wealth. I now wish to call attention to some 
of the forces which are at work there to bring 
about a condition of things which I think 
ought not to be ungrateful to Americans, to 
republicans, to those who believe in a repub- 
lican form of government, which we think is 
the only government which is to be developed 
and made successful in that country. One of 
those moral forces which are at work there 
now, is the system of free education which has 
been established there, especially by Benito 
Juarez under the present administration. To 
be sure there had been free schools prior to 
1859, but the system of free education has 
been especially inaugurated since 1859. I 
have written two or three pages upon what is 
being done in that republic in the line of edu- 
cation, and I will read them. 

That nation possesses elements of progress 
and approximate perfection which has, as a 
part of her system of government, organized 
schools for the education of its people. Free 
education every Government should furnish 
to all. Nothing can excel it in the power to 
ennoble and make glorious. Education refines 
and widens every conception of individual and 
associated man. ■ It vastly augments his pow- 
ers. I have, therefore, sought for schools in 



Mexico, free schools, as furnishing to my mind 
a reason why the Government there should be 
cherished by this, encouraged and even ap- 
plauded. The enemies of Mexico in this and 
other countries see only the shades in her 
present character. It is to me a pleasure to 
bring out the lights which do really exist in it. 
They shall and do forecast a brighter future, 
and, indeed, a future in which there will be 
no talk about monarchies or protectorates. 
I will here give portions of the account of 
education in some of the States of Mexico, by 
Colonel Albert S. Evans, in his recent work 
entitled " Our Sister Republic." Of the Gov- 
ernor of Colima he says : 

"He has taken a great interest in tlie establish- 
ment of free schools in Coliina and other towns in 
the State, and a decided advance has been made 
within the last two years in general education." 

Again : 

"The schools of Guadalajara, new as they are, 
some of them but a year or two established, inter- 
ested us more than anything else we saw in this 
ancient city. The municipality of Guadalajara now 
supports eighteen primary day schools, nine for 
boys and nine for girls, free to all, and live evening 
schools, besides contributing to the support of sev- 
eral more advanced schools, accommodating in all 
seven thousand pupils. 

"Then the State provides two high schools, one 
for boys and one for girls, which are free to all who 
are unable to pay ten dollars per month for board 
and tuition. No scholar who can pass the examin- 
ation can be refused, however humble or poor. 
There the youth are taught all the higher branches 
of mathematics, the languages, vocal and instru- 
mental music, and many arts by which they can 
gain an honest livelihood; a school of arts, in which 
four hundred boys are taught all the useful arts and 
trades, such as tailoring, saddlery, blacksmithing, 
boot-making, carpentering, ko. ; and an institute 
or college of higher grades for the instruction 
of boys intended for the learned professions. We 
first visited the girls' high school. This is the 
school provided by the State of Jalisco for grad- 
uates of her grammar school. It is situated in the 
old convent of San Diego, which was closed and con- 
fiscated to the nation by order of President Juarez, 
and is now wholly devoted to the purposes of free 
education. We found here two hundred and thirty 
girls from the age of twelve to twenty years, all 
bright, intelligent, and happy-looking. 

"Those able to do so pay ten dollars per month, 
and those who are not pay nothing. For this they 
receive instruction in all the studies usually pur- 
sued in the higher schools in the United States, 
vocal and instrumental music, object-drawing, all 
the fine arts, embroidering, lace-making, and, better 
still, cooking, washing, ironing, and other house- 
hold duties. In the music-hall the pupils gave us 
the opera of Ernani in as grand style, as it is usu- 
ally given by the regular opera comp'anies of the 
United States, the part of Ernani being sung by a 
little miss fourteen years of age, with a wonderfully 
powerful and highly cultivated voifce. On leaving 
this beautiful retreat, once the shade of darkness and 
superstition and bigotry, now so j ustly the iirideand 
hope of the State, Mr. Seward remarked, 'Why, in 
Heaven's name, do people talk of a protectorate for 
a country capable of such things as tjiese?' Next 
we visited the boys' high school. This establish- 
ment, originally built by bishop Parades, but now 
under civil control, contains nearly four hundred 
students, and will soon have five hundred. One 
great feature of this school is its library of thirty 
thousand volumes, m;i.inly the spoils of the confis- 
cated monasteries. This in New York, Boston, or 
England would bo an immense feature. 

"There are thousands on thousands of volumes 



three centuries old and more, printed or illuminated 
by hand, and as perfect in their parchment coverings 
as on the day they issued from the press. Most of 
, them are in Spanish, but there are many in French 
and some in English." 

The writer, after giving other accounts of 
the progress of free education in the States of 
Colima and Jalisco, closes his references to 
this subject in these two States as follows : 

" Say what you may, this is progress. Give Mex- 
ico fifteen years of uninterrupted peace in which to 
spread these schools throughout all the States, and 
she will astonish the world with her material ad- 
vance, and make the dream of establishing a mon- 
archy on the ruins of republicanism in the New 
World idleness and vanity. God grant that she 
may have the opportunity to make good my pre- 
diction." 

I might further state that there is, with but 
few exceptions, a college in each State. With 
all its faults the national school of art and 
design in Mexico is infinitely superior to any- 
thing similar on the continent; and it will be 
long before we shall equal it in the United 
States. 

The college of mines or mining college was 
\ one of the noblest educational institutions of 
Mexico in its design, and it had been famous 
for half a century before even an attempt at 
founding such a school had been made in the 
United States. These provisions for general 
and special education, the colleges, classical 
and scientific, the apparatus, the museums, 
libraries, paintings, sculpture, and mineral and 
natural history collections, indicate a culture 
and taste far beyond the generally entertained 
idea of Mexico, and they cannot be ignored 
in judging what the now torn republic 
shall be. 

I now wish to speak specifically of the pres- 
ent condition of Mexico, and some of the 
causes which are at work there to keep alive 
the present disorder, and therefore to give a 
reason why, instead of upbraiding Mexico with 
unkind words when she is struggling for life, 
struggling against the dead past, struggling 
against what Spain willed her, we should ex- 
tend to her our friendly consideration. 

As I said a moment ago, Benito Juarez 
became president of the republic of Mexico 
in the year 1859. I have a profound respect 
for the president of that republic, because of 
his character, and because of the immense 
difficulties under which he has labored from 
the very moment when he came into power. 
Freedom of conscience in matters of religion 
was proclaimed by Juarez when he became 
President. He insisted on breaking the civil 
power of the church, and to this end the 
property of the church was confiscated through- 
out the length and breadth of the republic. The 
power of the church was broken as by a blow, 
and when broken, there was set on fire the 
opposition which has followed him and his 
aaministration down to the present time. 



I am assuming, Mr. Speaker, in what I say, 
that there is no other form of government in 
the future to which we may look for Mexico 
than a republic. The elements for a mon- 
archy do not exist there. The people are in 
favor of a republican form o*!? government. We 
have, therefore, to look at that country as des- 
tined to be in the' future as she is now, a 
republic. 

You are aware that within the past two or 
three years, Mexico has been visited by ex- 
Secretary Seward ; that he passed across the 
entire country ; that he was hailed everywhere. 
Thousands on thousands at every city greeted 
him ; they greeted him as a representative of 
a neighboring Republic ; they greeted hira 
through gratitude, because of the noble posi- 
tion he took while their country was invaded 
by Maximilian, for I must insist that if ever 
we had sagacious diplomacy, we had it in the 
management of that question by Mr. Seward. 
But for him Maximilian might have triumphed 
there, and to him are we largely indebted for 
the absence of monarchical power on this con- 
tinent. At the city of Mexico, Secretary 
Seward was received with a public dinner, at 
which there were four hundred invited guests, 
with surroundings that could not and would 
not be excelled in this city, in New York, or 
anywhere on the continent. On that occasion 
speeches were made, not only by our minister, 
and by Mr. Seward, but by Mexican statesmen 
and Mexican orators, and all that was said 
th£re disclosed a living Mexican nationality 
which we must recognize now, and recognize 
in the future. 

In the speech of Mr. Seward occur the fol- 
lowing words : 

" The people of the United States, by an instinct 
which is a peculiar gift of Providence to nations, 
have comprehended better than even their Govern- 
ment has ever yet done the benignant destinies of the 
American continent and their own responsibility in 
that important matter. They know and see clearly 
that although the colonization and initiation of 
civilization in all parts of this continent was as- 
signed to Earopean monarchical States, yet that 
in perfecting society and civilization here, every 
part of the continent must sooner or later be made 
entirely independent of all foreign control, and of 
every form of imperial or despotic power, the sooner 
the better. Universally imbued with this lofty and 
magnanimous sentiment, the people of the United 
States have opened their broad territories from 
ocean to ocean and from the Lakes to the Gulf, 
freely to the downtrodden and oppressed of all 
nations, as a republican asylum. In their Consti- 
tution they have written with equal unanimity 
and zeal the declaration that to all who shall come 
within that asylum they guarantee that they shall 
be forever governed only by republican institu- 
tions. 

" This noble guarantee extends in spirit, in policy, 
and in effect to all other nations in the American 
hemisphere, so far as may depend on moral influ- 
ences, which in the cause of political truth are 
always more effective than arms. Some of those 
nations are communities near the United States, 
which, while they are animated like the American 
people, with a desire for republican institutions, and 
will not willinely submit to any other, are yet by 
, reason of insufficient territory, imperfect develop- 



ment, colonial demoralization, or other causes, in- 
capable of independently sustaining them. To these, 
as in the case of the ancient Louisiana, Florida, 
Alaska, San Domingro, and St. Thomas, the people of 
the United States offer incorporation into the United 
States, with their own free consent, without conquest, 
and when they are fully prepared for that important 
change. Other nations on the continent, liberally 
endowed with the elements and virtues of national 
independence, prosperity, and aggrandizement, and 
self-reliant, cherishing the same enlightened and 
intense desire for re?)ublican institutions, have nobly 
assumed the position and exercised the powers of 
exclusive sovereignty. Of this class are Mexico, 
older as a nation, but newer as a republic than the 
United States, Venezuela, and Colombia, the Central 
American States, Peru, the Argentine Republic, and 
Chili. These republics have thus become and are 
gladly recognized by the people of the United States 
with all their justclaims and pretensions of separate 
sovereignty, fraternal republics, and political allies. 
To the people of the United States the universal 
acceptance of republicanism is necessary, and hapily 
it is no less necessary for every nation and people 
on the continent. Who will show me how repub- 
licanism can be extended over the continent upon 
any other principle or under any other system than 
these ? If I forbear from dilating upon the influence 
which North America and South America, with all 
their archipelagoes, firmly established and frater- 
nally living under republican institutions, must put 
forth and will put forth in advancing civilization 
throusrhout the world, it is because I have already 
said enough to show that loyalty and patriotism on 
the part of a citizen of our American Republic is, 
in my judgment, not only consistent, but congenial 
with the best wishes for the welfare, prosperity, and 
happiness of all other American republics. I give 
vu, gentlemen, the health of President Benito 
Juarez, a name indissolubly associated with the 
names of Presidents Lincoln, Bolivar, and Wash- 
ington, in the heroic history of republicanism in 
America." 

That address, or that part of it which I have 
read, discloses the views which Mr. Seward 
has about Mexico, that inevitably she must 
have an independent existence, and that we 
ought to recognize this fact in all our inter- 
course with her, and that she may justly 
expect from us all the sympathies which one 
republic is bound to extend to another. There 
were none upon this continent, I trust, who 
sympathized with the attempt made to subju- 
gate Mexico. While we might have had Max- 
imilian spared, perhaps, from the violent death 
that overtook him, yet there was not given to 
him one particle of sympathy by any true 
lover of republican institutions in this coun- 
try. He was regarded by us all as an invader, 
and as such condemned by us from the begin- 
ning to the end of his tragic career; and while 
we pronounce the words "poor Carlotta" 
with sorrow, yet we have no forgiveness for 
the invasion of a portion of this continent 
of ours, destined with us to republicanism, 
and to republicanism alone. 

Benito Juarez is a Oaxaca Indian, was edu- 
cated for the church, and is a liberal Catholic. 
He subsequently studied law, and finally was 
chief justice of the supreme court of the re- 
public. He is a strong man, a man of abili- 
ties, of dogged determination, firm, resolute, 
and daring, and there are but few better men 
in any country, and there have been but few 



in any age who stand out and challenge our 
admiration as does Presideqt Juarez. He 
said : "let the church lose its civil power, and 
have alone its ecclesiastical power; let the 
wealth of the convents and the monasteries be 
confiscated; let the Wealth of the church be 
poured into the treasury of the country. " And 
$400,000,000 have, from this source, been car- 
ried into the federal treasury. 

It has, therefore, been a war from that time 
to this between the Church party and the Liberal 
party, headed by Juarez. It has not been a war 
against the church as such. Juarez himself 
is a Catholic. Bat it has been a war against 
the civil power of the church, and against the 
sequestration of wealth for the benefit of the 
church. This has been the struggle, this has 
been the contest, and no sooner had Juarez 
taken his seat than Miramon with his asso- 
ciates visited Madrid and Paris. Isabella and 
Eugenie were approached and besought to 
interest themselves in behalf of the church, in 
the struggle which was then commencing. 
Miramon remained in Paris and in Madrid 
until the invasion was inaugurated, and then 
came with the invaders as a guide to point out 
the way, that these invaders might ruin his 
native land and bring it under foreign subju- 
gation. He died along with Maximilian, and 
in the same way, without sympathy anywhere, 
a traitor to his country, as he was all the time 
from 1859 to the hour in which he fell. 

I will read the following extract from the 
recent work to which I have alluded, giving a 
description of Juarez, the great leader in this 
national struggle : 

"He impresses you as one who moves slowly, but . 
with irresistible force, and is capable of any sacri- 
fice and any expenditure of time, money, or blood, 
to carry out his plans when once adopted. Whether 
entertaining the nation's guests, as we saw him on 
this night, when thousands of eyes were upon him, 
sitting in his bare-walled room at El Paso del 
Norte, with a price upon his head, and but two hun^* 
dred Indian troops to support him and the republic 
against the mercenary hordes of Europe and domes- 
tic traitors, or walking in the garden of Chapul- 
tepee, smoking his cigarette and meditating on 
plans for putting down pronunciamientos, crushing 
the power of the church, or establishing schools and 
providing for the education and improvement of 
his people, he is ever the same taciturn, self-reliant, 
hopeful, unexcitablo man, believing in himself, 
and confident of the final triumph of republicanisoi 
over all trials and opposition. 

"A horse-fancying friend described him once to 
me as 'not a three-minute trotter, but a mighty good 
all-day horse, and safe for a long journey.' The 
idea is sound, though expressed in a homely man- 
ner. He is never accused of forgetting his friends, 
and his triumph over all enemies and difficulties 
the most gigan^tic stamp him as a man of no ordinary 
mold, one destined to fill a remarkable page in the 
history of the world." 

This is the man who is at the head of the 
existing Government of Mexico. They have 
had, to be sure, an internal commotion which 
is a subject of regret to us all, but there has 
been, nevertheless, a steady advance in the 
development of the country and in the increase 



6 



of its population. Juarez has rid many of tlie 
States of the thieves and robbers who infested 
them. He has been constantly at work from 
the beginning of his administration to the pres- 
ent time in bringing order out of confusion. 

The work entitled "Our Sister Republic" 
has the following : 

"With all the drawbacks in Mexico, one cannot 
but admit that there has been substantial progress 
made since the Liberal party, with Benito Juarez at 
its head, came into power. Notable things have 
been accomplished: 

" 1. The sequestration of the vast landed estate of 
the church and the destruction of its temporal 
power. 

' ' 2. The establishment of complete religious tolera- 
tion, and protection of all and the right to wor- 
ship God according to their own consciences. 

"3. The establishment of public schools and the in- 
auguration of free public instruction, yet in its 
infancy, but destined to work the greatest benefit to 
future generations. 

"4. The liberation and enfranchisement of all peons 
and the destruction of the last form of legalized 
slavery. 

"5. The freedom of the press, not yet complete, but 
nearly so, i^nd soon to be perfect." 

He might have further added that during 
this period over two hundred miles of rail- 
road have been built, and that within the pres- 
ent year the number of miles will reach three 
hundred. The city of Mexico will then be 
connected by rail with Vera Cruz. When this 
takes place the silver from the mines can be 
taken to the coast with comparative safety. 
The influence of this road even upon the civil- 
ization as well as the business of the country 
v/ill be immense. These are some of the 
triumphs of the Liberal party in Mexico — the 
party around which the loyalists rallied as it 
contended with Maximilian and the merce- 
•naries, the scum of all Europe, who attended 
him. This is the party which followed him 
unto death and ended forever all hazard of 
foreign invasion. No ruler ever bore a heavier 
load, ever faced a worse foe, or ever fought 
domestic and foreign foes with firmer tread 
than Benito Juarez. His loyalty to Mexican 
nationality makes him a hero of the age. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, although these disorders 
exist, what we should give to Mexico is not 
censure, but support. We should praise what- 
ever of good there is there. We should hail 
whatever moral force there is in it. We should 
encourage Mexico to develop her own great 
resources, and not compel her to feel that this 
great and now united Republic has no grace 
for her poor, struggling, sister republic. 

Ah ! the power of superstition and of big- 
otry that has been entailed on Mexico, which 
clings to it as with a death-grasp! And it 
takes time, it takes the nerve of such men 
as Juarez to thrust it aside and restore the 
country to the fullness of life. I have faith in 
Mexico. I believe in the power of its people 
to redeem themselves. 1 believe that that 
republic will yet live in well-developed power. 
I do not believe that we want her States as a 



part of our Republic. We do not desire to 
obtain them by annexation. Even if my hope 
in regard to the future of Mexico is realized, 
her civilization will always be that of the Latin 
race ; it will never be that of the Caucasian 
race. The civilization of the former race is 
less rugged than that of the latter. We do not 
desire that country to become a part of our 
own. We should not seek to extend over it 
a governmental protection. But I do believe 
that the Government of Mexico should feel 
that she can look to us for sympathy, for suc- 
cor, and for aid when invaded from without, 
and for sympathy in her struggles to redeem 
herself, and for an appreciation of what she is 
and what she may be, by her own internal 
forces working themselves freely out in their 
own channels and modes of development. 

In reading the speeches that were made at 
this great dinner to which I have alluded, I 
find that there was a Mexican orator, Don 
Ignacio M. Altamirano of Guerrero, who 
spoke on that occasion. I would gladly read 
his entire speech, because there was a nation- 
ality in it, a Mexicanism in it ; and the response 
which it had showed how intensely those peo- 
ple are wedded to a republican form of gov- 
ernment, and how they cling to it, and will 
continue to cling to it in the long years to 
come ; and hence, we may not expect that 
she is to throw off a republican form of gov- 
ernment at anytime; she never will do it any 
more than America will do it. She has none 
of the elements of an aristocracy even, much 
.less of an empire or a monarchy, any more 
than we have in America. They never can 
be other than republican in their form of gov- 
ernment. We have' not the elements of any 
other Government than the one we possess. 
The same is true of Mexico. 

From that speech I take a single para- 
graph, and I think, sir, you will agree with me 
that this sentence shows a culture and power 
of expression that but few men possess. In 
the midst of his speech he alluded to our late 
war, and in one single sentence he announced 
its beginning, its progress, its close, and its 
triumph in these words: 

"The thunderbolt fell; the heavens became se- 
rene; the dead were taken up from the battle-field; 
t4ie blood was washed away, and in the splendor of 
the rainbow appeared the slaves with their chains 
broken asunder and their foreheads illuminated with 
the sun of equality." 

No ordinary mind could thus epitomize a 
great national struggle in a single sentence 
with more brilliancy and power than in this 
single sentence which I have read. 

I have noAv occupied the time of the House 
sulBciently long. At the commencement of 
what I had to say I stated the reason why I 
wanted to say this much. I resided in Mexico 
a single year, and was kindly treated by that 
people, and my connection with them won my 
esteem. I desired here to defend them. I have 



no defense to make of any invasions of our 
territory at the present time, and to which 
allusion has been made here. Those are the 
results of the disorders that are there, and they 
are not denied. But back of them there is a 
Government, republican in form, duly organ- 
ized, in force, and to be felt in the future. 
And instead of these resolutions of censure 
and of blame, it is the part of our Government 
to congratulate Mexico whenever she wins a 
victory over these disorders, to aid her and 
assist her rather than to crush her down by 
unkind references, or by heralding her to the 
world as a country which is depopulating itself 
by its internal disorders. My hope and my 
belief is that Mexico shall yet be a worthy 
sister republic, magnificent in her government 
as she is majestic in her resources, grand in 
her character as she is by nature in her capacity. 
We cannot consent to see a republic perish 
from our own continent and its place filled by 
a Government of any other character or form. 
This would be inviting an enemy to our doors, 
and, indeed, letting him within the doors. 
The United States must stand guard on re- 
publicanism. That is the mission of our 
great Government, and I cannot doubt its 
purpose to discharge it well. Mexico has had 
our form of government for fifty years — she 
has been a republic during that time. We 
cannot do less than study the difiSculties 
against which she has been compelled to con- 
tend. Its civilization, when her career as an 
independent Government commenced, was 
linked with a past wherein superstition and a 
bound conscience everywhere prevailed. It 



is difficult for our people fully to understand 
how much these two evil spirits may do to 
keep a race from great achievements. This is 
an age, with us, at least, when man is free in 
the noblest and truest sense. He is free to 
push out into the regions where the best con- 
ceptions of human life and achievement have 
their birth. Years of such freedom will do 
more for a race than centuries where its mind 
is bound in fetters stronger than iron. Amer- 
ican achievements in practical science stamp 
the character of our civilization. Our civil- 
ization is Christian in that man and his eleva- 
tion in the scale of social being, are the main 
objects at which he aims. I can look 'with 
comparative composure upon the turmoils of 
Mexico, if I find that beneath them, right 
elements of civilization are at work. They 
will at some time find their triumph. 
They will vindicate their right to control the 
mass. With these views I do not hesitate to 
pronounce myself a friend of Mexico, for I do 
know that the principles of universal educa- 
tion, enlightenment, and freedom are thus 
struggling for the mastery. All that the 
blindest bigotry could do for any people was 
done for the Mexican. Time, blood, and life 
can alone bring it to the full light of a broad 
and generous freedom. The God of nature 
has been so lavish with this land that He must 
have in store for it a higher type of culture and 
consequent enjoyment than it has yet attained. 
The platform of the Liberal party in Mexico, 
giving freedom of body, mind, and soul to all, 
challenges my admiration, and therefore my 
voice in its behalf. 



Printed at the Office of the Congressional Globe. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




001 885 576 8 ^ 



